Encyclopedia of World Geography for RtR?

[rumkimom]

Does anyone using RtR use an Encyclopedia of World Geography for the research box? If so, what one do you recommend? We have an adult set of Encydlopedias but those are too hard for my daughter to read (reading comprehension problems). Do most of you have your child do this research on Wikipedia? I looked there under Rome (for Unit 1) and think that the amount of info will overwhelm her to tears. Is there another place online that has less info and more for a child?

[Nealewill]

This is just my opinion so take it or leave it for what it is worth.

I am personally not a huge fan of Wikipedia only because colleges won't let you use it for research papers. I have used it in CTC as a training tool but about half way through, I started having my dd just google questions. I fully anticipate doing this when we start RtR next year.

I also know that you can get something like the World Book Encyclopedia CD. I think it costs around $40 or so but I haven't really considered getting it. I find googling it works best for us.

[chillin'inandover]

I agree with Daneale, and I was not a fan of Wikipedia. We started using it in RTR and it worked great for the postcard research. I know our library has an online encyclopedia that we have access to. We used this resource when my son was doing his research for Renaissance artists in IEW Middle Ages in RTR. The skill being taught is skimming a resource for information. I see the progression now that I am in MTMM.

[rumkimom]

Thanks! We used google to search for each question. Just finding answers to specific questions is hard for her, then having to write something from the info she wrote down is also hard. She got through it though. It took at least an hour for her to do.....so about 3x as long as it does for other kids.

[Nealewill]

Then this is a time that I would sit with her. I know you have multiple kids and that finding that time is hard. But I would do my best to sit with her. Maybe schedule this item first on the day it happens and start school 15 min early to give yourself that time. It is easy for me to say this but this would be my approach. Or, my other approach is to save it for last. That way, when everything is done and everyone is onto something new, you can do it then. That is how I would schedule it. But I would just encourage you to sit with her if it is taking that long. She will get faster. But the more hand holding, the better and faster she will get.

[rumkimom]

Ummm...it took an hour WITH me coaching/sitting by her the entire time. Remember she has learning disabilities and that is why this takes so long (she was not goofing around, but hard at work the whole time). Many time she will have to read something several times to understand it. When she takes 'notes' they are complete sentences and she does write slower. Today was almost all 'hand-holding' (we got 5 boxes from Day 2 done after this was done)'. I am proud of her for sticking with it and getting it done...without resorting to "I can't do this"/tears. She is a perfectionist as well so she dictated what she wanted written (with a little assistance on how to start). I wrote it on notebook paper and then she copied that into the box in the history page. I do hope that with time she will get quicker, but realize that this just might be one of those things that takes her much longer.

[LynnH]

Since she has learning disabilities, and since she worked very diligently, I would decrease the number of questions she finds the answers to. You could look at the box ahead of time and highlight 2 questions that you think would be easier for her to find and understand the answers to. As she learns to do key note outlining in the IEW writing lessons you could talk her through doing those same kind of notes with the research. If she gets pretty good with 2 questions then you could increase it by one. Even if in the allowed time she can only answer one question I would go with that at first. I am big on rewarding diligence and acknowledging they are doing their best and don't want them to feel "punished" with something taking so much time due to something they have no control over.

[rumkimom]

Lynn - that is a good idea. We are not doing the writing from RtR as it is too hard for her, we are doing Write with the best (the one in CTC) instead.

[LynnH]

Wendy I saw after I replied that in your week in review post you said your were doing Write with the Best. I saw she became frustrated with finding the descriptive words. I wanted to make sure you knew she doesn't have to find all of them. For my son I set a number such as 3 or 5 or whatever I thought was reasonable for each thing. Carrie has also recommended just having dc look for a set time and take whatever they find in that time and move on.

[rumkimom]

Yes, we did better on the second half. I told her to find anything she could and then after a certain amount of time we moved on. She knows what each of those parts of speech are, but it is still hard to identify them. Tomorrow we will only do about half of what they say to do for day 4 (I will limit the time and we will get done what we get done). If it take a month to get the unit done, so be it!! I do not what her to get too frustrated so we will take it as slowly as we need to. Thanks so much.